EDITORIAL: Australia gives Israel some tough love

Israel should not expect governments like Australia to remain silent while it expands settlements and entrenches the occupation of the West Bank.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong this week announced Australia will harden its language on Israel-Palestine, referring to the West Bank as “occupied” and settlements as “illegal”.

On the weight of most – though not all – international legal opinion, the government’s new language is accurate. The West Bank is occupied and the settlements – many of them growing into cities – are therefore generally held to be illegal.

This week’s announcement can be read as a deft pre-emptive strike by Wong in the face of a vote at the ALP national conference next week, where the party is likely to push the government to recognise Palestine as a state.

If the move works, it will be a good compromise for those who want to see Australia take a stance against the extremism of the Israeli government but don’t want to endorse a Palestinian state until there is a workable model ready to live in peace with Israel.

The new language responds to the pro-settler position of the current Israeli government. The coalition of far-right Jewish supremacists and Greater Israel fanatics has combined with the gymnastic pragmatism of Benjamin Netanyahu to create a major obstacle to any resolution of the conflict.

Its support of new settlements and even of violent settlers deserve to be condemned by international governments, as do its anti-democratic domestic policies.